Handling late players in a tourney

[dfscott]

I'm planning on hosting a home freeze-out tournament. I have one player who is chronically late to everything, so I'm preparing for the eventuality that he will arrive late.

The rules I have found for this are as follows:

[ QUOTE ]
Players who have committed their attendance to the Tournament Director but have not arrived by the deal of the first hand will, at the Tournament Director’s discretion, be assigned a seat and issued chips. A player will post all appropriate blinds/antes on behalf of the absent player. If the absent player has not arrived before the first hand of the second blind is dealt, the absent player’s chips are removed from play and he forfeits any chance to play.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ok, pretty straightforward, but what about the chips there were posted into pots and won by other players? If the player doesn't show up in time, are they supposed to surrender those chips when the player's chips are removed from play? If so, how do you keep track of that?

[willie]

just keep blinding him off till he shows up.

just make sure that he is going to show up

[dfscott]

[ QUOTE ]
just keep blinding him off till he shows up.

just make sure that he is going to show up

[/ QUOTE ]

It just seems like if it continued for any prolonged period (say, an hour), it would give a great advantage to the players immediately to his right due to their ability to easily steal his blinds.

[Action Scott]

I have one quick question about your situation, has this player pre-paid for the tourney, if so, I would let his stack dwindle until gone if he doesn't show. If he hasn't paid yet, the problem is he may show up late, see that some of his chips are gone and decide not to play at all. I would consider just telling him to be there on time, give him maybe an extra ten minutes from the time you said you would start, and if he's not there play without him. (of course some of this depends on how many players you have in your tourney and how good of friends you are with this person).

[Stew]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
just keep blinding him off till he shows up.

just make sure that he is going to show up

[/ QUOTE ]

It just seems like if it continued for any prolonged period (say, an hour), it would give a great advantage to the players immediately to his right due to their ability to easily steal his blinds.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is true, but that's the luck of the draw isn't it.

Basically, you need to set a drop-dead start time and tell the players if they aren't here by that time, then they may be out of luck. If the player has paid in advance, then I'd blind him off once you hit the drop-dead time and start the tournament.

once he misses out a tourney b/c you started or a good portion of his stack has been blinded off, he'll never miss the start of a tourney again. He's going to keep taking advantage of you accomadating him until he realizes there is a consequence to his tardiness.

[o0mr_bill0o]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm planning on hosting a home freeze-out tournament. I have one player who is chronically late to everything, so I'm preparing for the eventuality that he will arrive late.

The rules I have found for this are as follows:

[ QUOTE ]
Players who have committed their attendance to the Tournament Director but have not arrived by the deal of the first hand will, at the Tournament Director’s discretion, be assigned a seat and issued chips. A player will post all appropriate blinds/antes on behalf of the absent player. If the absent player has not arrived before the first hand of the second blind is dealt, the absent player’s chips are removed from play and he forfeits any chance to play.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ok, pretty straightforward, but what about the chips there were posted into pots and won by other players? If the player doesn't show up in time, are they supposed to surrender those chips when the player's chips are removed from play? If so, how do you keep track of that?

[/ QUOTE ]

since it's a tourney there's no problem with the excess chips at the table. money is paid out by position, not chip-count, so it's not going to cause any issues. the only issue is the advantage givcen to those to his immediate right if he's allowed to post blind while absent for a prolonged period.

[nutn2lewz]

Players keep the chips. If you randomly assign seats (and tables), it is the luck of the draw as to who benefits from these additional chips.

You want to minimize this benefit so that is why you place a time limit rather than blind him off until all his chips are gone. You also do this to encourage players to arrive on time, or within 10-20 minutes, rather than an hour into your tourney.

Good luck, nutn

[GizmoDogg]

We have a rule that the late player will pay his blinds up to the end of the first level. Once that passes, we will distribute his remaining chips evenly among the other players at his table.

[daryn]

that is clearly the worst way to handle it.

[dfscott]

[ QUOTE ]
Players keep the chips. If you randomly assign seats (and tables), it is the luck of the draw as to who benefits from these additional chips.

You want to minimize this benefit so that is why you place a time limit rather than blind him off until all his chips are gone. You also do this to encourage players to arrive on time, or within 10-20 minutes, rather than an hour into your tourney.

Good luck, nutn

[/ QUOTE ]

I like this method -- and thanks to everyone who responded.

[GizmoDogg]

I didn't think so when I thought it up... am I missing something?

[edit] Nevermind. I think I understand nutn's explanation on the ruling.

[2planka]

Haven't plowed through all the posts, but here's how I handle it.

State the time at which registration closes. I say "registration closes 1 hour after the first hand of the first level is dealt."

I also have a rule that any player absent from the table shall have his/her blinds posted. A player absent for more than 20 minutes (one level) may have his/her chips removed from the table at the discretion of the tournament director.

If a player has committed to playing in the tourney (ideally by paying the buy-in ahead of time), then you fall back on the "absent" rule.

If you're not using the absentee rule be sure to require late arrivals to post a dead blind to receive a hand.

[Lottery Larry]

To avoid dealing with this I do this

Arrive before end of first round -5% of starting stack
Arrive during second round -10%
Arrive before end of third round -20%